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FINAL PROJECT SUMMARY 1

Final Project Summary


Kevin Quinn
EDU 706 School/Community Relations/Communications
University of New England
April 20, 2018
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I knew that during my internship I wanted to specifically work on engaging in regular

and open two-way communication with families and the community about the school, students,

needs, program and accomplishments (PSEL standard 8-C). The PLC that I am part of was the

committee that was in charge of producing the parent newsletter each month. However, after a

district initiative of implementing Restorative Practices, our committee took over as being the

Restorative Practices Committee and helping to give support and strategies to teachers in their

classrooms.

Understanding the importance of having regular communication with parents that

highlighted our students' achievements as well as providing transparency of our programmatic

focal points was paramount to me as a future administrator, so I wanted to find a way to bring

back the monthly parent newsletter as my community outreach project with the help of my

mentor, the principal in my building.

After the completion of this project I looked at what I had initially aimed to accomplish.

At the onset of this internship, I aimed to focus on PSEL standard 8 subsections A, B, and G.

Throughout my time as an administrative intern, and through the collaboration with my

colleagues in order to create a system for publishing a monthly newsletter, I felt as though I

accomplished what I set out to do. The newsletter helps to create and sustain a positive,

collaborative and productive relationship with families and the community for the benefit of

students and serves as a means of developing the school as a resource to families.

Throughout this internship experience, I learned how to truly become a reflective

practitioner. I do more than what I now consider to be a superficial self-reflection. Previously,

my professional reflections were only in relation to a lesson I taught. I rarely stepped outside of

the planning and execution role and into the role of reflecting on myself as a professional. I have
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learned how to reflect on the way in which I am communicating with families, with colleagues,

and with students. Moreover, I now reflect on how others view my role in the building and the

perception I want them to have based on the characteristics of a good leader.

I have come to understand through my field work that communication is far more than

sending and receiving messages. and that "a leader who is truly a skilled communicator will

perfect the communications process and deliver messages using techniques or strategies that are

appropriate to the requirements of the situation" (Green, 2013, p. 134). In order to become an

effective school leader, I need to be able to build a culture of trust by staying connected to

faculty, students, and the community and acquiring feedback in a participatory manner.

In order to complete this task successfully, I also needed to use problem-solving skills in

the ability to overcome hurdles that presented themselves such as reorganizing our PLC meeting

time in order to accommodate both Restorative Practices and the parent newsletter. I also needed

to employ the ability to delegate critical tasks to others, which is a vulnerable place to be, and a

particular weakness of mine. Additionally, in my administrative internship, I also needed to be

able to make decisions on the spot. I found this to be similar to the split second decisions I have

to make on the field as a head football coach.

My biggest challenge during this internship was time management. I found myself

wearing so many different hats. I was filling in for whole days at a time as an administrative

intern, spending the entire day literally running around the building. I was managing how to

balance our PLC meeting time between our newly assigned task of developing strategies for

Restorative Practices and creating a parent newsletter for the first time all year. I was also

teaching my classes, taking classes, buying and selling homes with real estate, and also, my most

important job being a dad.


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However, I think this is a realistic challenge for almost every administrator. How do you

deal with the day-to-day running of a school while also simultaneously being an educational

leader? There is enough to keep you busy just with the management of operations and that

excludes the time to work with teachers in order to help improve instruction. Time needs to be

strategically planned so that you can see classrooms, talk to students, and meet with parents and

members of the community.

The most important thing that I was able to accomplish during this internship experience

was enhancing my relationship with colleagues through the joint planning and execution of the

parent newsletter. As a result of this project, we were able to successfully complete a parent

newsletter for the month of March and created a sustainable system to continue with this model

for the remainder of the year.

Throughout this process, I learned that decisions that are made are not always within the

building principal’s control. This was something I saw being on the other side of the curtain.

There are so many variables in play such as legal issues, parent and student’s rights, negative

publicity, special education laws and rights protecting students that I couldn’t possibly see the

problem from the numerous angles it was being viewed by those in an administrative capacity.

Therefore, I understand now how those same decisions will be viewed by teachers in my own

building one day, and it reinforces how critical a level of transparency and an open-door policy is

for a school to function at its highest level.


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References

Green, R. L. (2017). Practicing the art of leadership: a problem-based approach to

implementing the professional standards for educational leaders. NY, NY: Pearson

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